


i'll hold your hands, they're just like ice

by green_tea31



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 09:04:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16594949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_tea31/pseuds/green_tea31
Summary: Mac and Jack wrestle with snow, hypothermia, and their feelings.





	i'll hold your hands, they're just like ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlackVultures](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackVultures/gifts).



> I wrote this in a fit of inspiration after rewatching 3x01 and wanting to see them return to Belarus in the winter. Also, I've been on a Christmas binge this last week, thus the setting of the story.  
> I found the courage to post this because BlackVultures asked for a story like this on tumblr and that gave me the neccessary kick to wrestle my anxiety into submission which is why I made this a gift to her. Sort of like an early Christmas present. I hope you like it :)
> 
> The house in this story actually exists, including the candles. I found it years ago when I was still at a different university along with some friends of mine and no, I'm not telling you where. It just seemed like a fitting setting for this story.
> 
> Fun fact: I almost named this "From Belarus, with love" but that was too cheesy, even for me. 
> 
> As always, English is not my first language, self-betaed, all mistakes are my own.
> 
> Title comes from "Baby, it's cold outside", bit obvious I know but I just couldn't help myself.

BELARUS, CLOSE TO THE LITHUANIAN BORDER, NOW

“It’s gonna be _easy_ , she says. Just a milk run, she says. You’ll be back in time for Christmas.” Jack mutters angrily while unsuccessfully digging at the snow around their car with the shovel he found in the trunk.

“Did you say something?” Mac asks from where he’s half-way buried under the car. Jack’s pretty sure it’s a lost cause trying to get the car back to the road and the snow is still coming down heavily.

“Nothin’. I don’t think this is gonna work, Mac.” He answers, watching his partner getting up. Mac’s lips already have a blue tint to them and Jack needs to find them shelter _yesterday_.

He’s _not_ losing Mac to hypothermia two days before Christmas. Correction, he’s not losing Mac, _period_.

Mac sways slightly and Jack reaches out to steady him, fighting the urge to bundle Mac up and tuck him away somewhere with as many layers between him and the cold as Jack can rustle up around here. Getting overprotective right now won’t help them. They need to get out of the cold as soon as possible and they need Mac’s brain and Jack’s…everything else to do that.

“I think I saw some lights earlier, when we were coming down the road.” Mac points in the direction of the street. “Maybe there’s a house somewhere with a phone.”

 _‘_ And people’ Jack adds silently. At least they managed to confirm that the bad guys weren’t as lucky as them and died either when their car flipped over or shortly after, so that’s one less problem Jack has to deal with. As long as the lights don’t belong to a house filled with serial killers, zombies or cannibals, they were probably going to be fine.

“Come on, hoss. Let’s see if we can find us a place to warm up.” Jack grabs his bag from the car and takes Mac’s, too, before he can protest. After the tumble his partner took earlier, he isn’t risking Mac’s health when Jack’s perfectly capable of carrying both their bags. Mac doesn’t protest, just glares at him and that’s another sign to Jack that his partner needs to get someplace warm quick, because if anything, Mac’s always adamant about carrying his share of the weight.

The few times he wasn’t?

Well…the less said about those ops the better. Most of them still give Jack nightmares and he really isn’t looking forward to adding this one to the mix.

With one last glance at their downed car, they start making their way back to the road and the lights Mac saw. Jack is forced to slow down twice because Mac is getting slower with each minute they spend outside in the cold. The snow has lightened up a bit, but all that does is give them a slightly better idea in which direction they have to walk. Still, right now Jack’s thankful for everything that makes their situation less likely to kill them.

When they finally reach the road, Mac has all but started stumbling alongside Jack and Jack just grabs him around the waist and tucks him close enough, he hopes, prays, will give Mac the needed energy to get them both to the house that is standing exactly where Mac said it would be, not far from the road at all. To Jack, it’s the sweetest thing he’s seen today, because right then Mac tips sideways into Jack’s chest and slides to the ground before Jack manages to let go of their bags and catch him.

 

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS, YESTERDAY

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS

“You want us to what?” Jack blurts out doubtfully while Matty watches him and Mac, unimpressed. It’s almost Christmas. Sure, that never seemed to stop the dictators, drug lords and assorted bad guys creeping out of the woodwork around this time of year but this mission seems somewhat…redundant. Also, Jack has _really_ been looking forward to a quiet Christmas at Mac’s this year.   

His partner agrees with him, apparently. Jack knows that expression. It’s Mac’s ‘do you really know what you’re doing or are you just trying to wing it’ look which he’s aimed at Jack before. A lot.

“I’m not tryin’ to wiggle out of this ‘cause it’s almost Christmas, but come on, Matty, this is child’s play. Don’t you have a junior or two running around this place who can meet with the guy?” Jack asks pleadingly.

“I know I’ve been sending you two out a lot recently, but this guy requested Mac specifically and I didn’t think you’d let him go off on his own, Jack. Was I wrong about that?” Matty looks at him, a knowing look in her eyes.

“Of course not, just…” Jack turns to Mac who is in the process of turning a paperclip into a vague approximation of a snowflake. “How do you even know this guy?”

Mac shrugs and looks at Matty. “I’d like to know that, too. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him.” He says and gestures at the image on the screen.

Matty takes a deep breath and rubs the bridge of her nose. That’s definitely her ‘I’m getting a Dalton induced headache’ face and Jack might feel more guilty about giving her a hard time if she wasn’t about to send him and Mac out into the cold three days before Christmas.

“Remember that op last year where you two took out an entire group of Eastern European human traffickers and brought their boss back for questioning?”

Mac and Jack look at each other before nodding simultaneously.

“Well, it seems you didn’t take out all of them after all and this guy can give us everything we need to know to stop the successors from gaining anywhere near the power or influence that group had. He also remembers Mac taking out five guys with a Swiss Army Knife and a handful of chemicals and he was impressed.” She turns back to the screen and flicks through a set of different images, stopping at a map.

“You’ll meet with Kostov tomorrow. He’s currently hiding in Belarus, close to the Lithuanian border. Meet with him, get the info and then get yourself and Kostov over the border into Lithuania. Exfil will meet you here.” She indicates a point on the map. “It’s about an hour south of Vilnius. And yes, Jack, I know you’re not exactly welcome in Belarus but you’re not persona non grata, either. This will be quick and subtle. No one is even going to know you were there.”

Matty turns to them just as Mac is putting his finished sculpture down on the table.

“It’s an easy milk run. Be subtle, don’t attract attention, don’t blow anything up and you’ll be home in time for Christmas Eve.”

 

BELARUS, CLOSE TO THE LITHUANIAN BORDER, HALF AN HOUR AGO

IT’S NOT THAT EASY

Jack curses violently as he nearly avoids colliding with…something on the road while Mac is fiddling with something next to him. Jack sure hopes it’s going to be ready to explode and soon because the guys in the car behind them have finished reloading and start shooting at them again.

“Mac, I don’t wanna distract you, but could you hurry up a bit? I can’t see a damn thing in this snow.” The next curve nearly carries them off the road but Jack manages to steady the car in time.

“I’m working as fast as I can, Jack. But I can’t see much of anything, either.” Mac tells him frustrated. The flashlight he’s put in front of him has long since capitulated to the force of Jack’s driving and is rolling around somewhere in the back of the car. To add insult to injury, Mac took a tumble in the snow earlier while escaping from their pursuers and is now soaked through with melted snow, all while the heating in the car hasn’t just given out, it’s never worked in the first place. That wasn’t so much of a problem when they first arrived, healthy and dry, but now…

Well, they need to get rid of the car behind them and find someplace warm to wait out the snow. If they’re very unlucky they need to find a place to spend Christmas because Jack isn’t sure where they are but he knows exfil isn’t anywhere close enough to get them out.

They’d planned on meeting their contact at a little café, easy enough, maybe have a nice, hot cup of coffee and then spend the rest of the day leisurely driving to Lithuania in a freezing car while avoiding border patrol and listening to shitty Christmas music on the radio.

No such luck.

There’d been something off about the whole thing the moment they drove into town, Jack could feel it. This close to the border Belarus isn’t the friendliest of places and Jack might be slightly biased but even he thought there were suspiciously few people outside for a late afternoon workday.

As soon as he and Mac had walked into the café, bullets had started flying. Seemed Kostov wasn’t really looking to turn himself over to the good guys, but was more interested in getting revenge for his father who, it turns out, is the head of the human trafficking ring who’s currently cooling his heels in an American Supermax prison.

Oh, and Kostov isn’t Kostov either. That poor guy is probably lying dead somewhere with a bullet in his head or maybe he’s turned into an icicle in this beautiful but deadly country they’re currently trying to escape from.

Speaking of…

“Mac, now would be the time!” Jack nearly screams to make himself heard over the gunfire and as always his partner comes through. With a weak grin he holds up whatever it is he’s been working on and opens the window on his side. Jack grits his teeth at the sudden onslaught of icy wind but manages to hold the car steady enough for Mac to lean out and throw his contraption with as much precision as he can manage.  

For a moment, nothing happens.

Then the sound of an explosion rips through the night, the shooting stops abruptly and Jack just manages to catch the sight of the other car flipping over before he loses control over their car and their escape ends in an impressively piled up mountain of snow.

 

BELARUS, CLOSE TO THE LITHUANIAN BORDER, NOW

Jack lets go of their bags the moment Mac hits the snow. He’ll have to retrieve them later. There’s nothing that would really help them anyway, since they hadn’t exactly planned on staying longer than necessary and radio contact is out of the question in this storm.

Jack hosts Mac up into his arms as careful as he can and thanks God and whatever existing deities that the house is as close as it is, that there is a house in the first place.

He manages to get Mac to the door without doing more damage to his partner and tries to find a doorbell. As European houses go, it’s not a very old one, build somewhere around the 1960s, the kind of dull, grey Stalinist leftover architecture that could be found all over the former Soviet Union.

There’s no doorbell, there’s also no security system, no cameras by the front door or anything that could potentially alert anyone inside to visitors. So Jack puts down his precious cargo, carefully propping Mac up next to the door and sets to prove that he, too, knows how to open locked doors without a key.

The inside isn’t much better or more welcoming than the outside, but at least there’s no snow and no icy wind. The door opens into a single room with a rickety bed in one corner and an ancient electric oven next to it. The window next to the door is nailed shut, so they’ll have no way to look outside but it adds protection against the cold. Jack puts Mac down on the bed and tries the switch on the lamp next to it. It works and bathes the room in dim, yellowish light. He quickly checks his partners pulse and breathing. Both appear weak but so far stable enough and Jack lets out a relieved sigh before he takes stock of what else he has to work with.

The house has the strange eerie atmosphere of only recently being abandoned. There’s some dust on the surfaces but not much and Jack says a silent prayer that the heater is still working or he’s seriously going to consider making an indoor fire to warm up Mac.

There’s a closet in the back where he finds a pile of old blankets and Jack quickly starts stripping Mac of his wet clothes before he carefully wraps him up until only his face is left exposed.

Jack gently tucks an errand strand of Mac’s hair into the blanket and smiles when Mac sighs at the contact and turns his face into Jack’s hand.

It’s…

Jack’s fighting the urge to join his partner and wrap himself around this beautiful blue eyed boy, keep him shielded from the world outside, from the cold that’s threatening them even inside the house but…

He has work to do.

Heat is a priority right now. They may be out of the cold but the inside isn’t that much warmer and so Jack closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and plugs in the electric heater, hoping, _praying_ …

There’s no light to indicate if it works but Jack puts a hand on top of the coils and slowly but surely it begins to warm up.

It feels like the first real break they got today. Jack really wasn’t looking forward to starting an indoor fire. He doesn’t put the heater closer to the bed, knowing that extreme heat could do more harm than good to Mac right know. The heater will warm up the room and hopefully dry Mac’s clothes which they’re going to need if exfil can’t get to them.

With Mac safe and breathing, Jack goes back to exploring their hideaway. There’s a door leading towards the back of the house and behind it Jack finds a dark hallway. He tries the light switch but it stays dark.

Great.

Nothing like a dark, abandoned hallway to make a guy’s day. He switches on the flashlight he took from the car before they left and finds two more doors. One leads into a tiny, cramped bathroom. Predictably, Jack gets no water from the faucet but that’s fine, they can melt down snow to drink and to flush the toilet. It’s about the only good thing coming from the onslaught of white outside.

The other door reveals a kitchen covered in ugly brown laminate but, never mind the decor, Jack also finds a veritable treasure trove of canned food and a box of chicory based coffee replacement and, most importantly, he finds a portable stove just as ancient as the heater but with enough fuel to last them several days.  He takes the stove, a pot, fuel and coffee replacement and goes back to check on Mac.

The front room has warmed up nicely by the time Jack makes his way back to Mac’s bedside. The heater is small but powerful and Jack needs to remember to periodically check up on it because, otherwise, he could end up burning down their little shelter if it overheats during the night, not that Jack is planning on doing much sleeping anyway.

Not until Mac’s better.

He checks Mac’s pulse and breathing again and finds them still weak but getting stronger. Jack takes a moment to really look at his partner. Mac has somehow managed to work his head free of the blankets and his hair is a mess. He’s recently gone back to keeping it longer again, and Jack finds he likes it, imagines running his hands through the strands in his weaker moments…

Jack tucks the blankets back around Mac’s head and forces himself to concentrate on the immediate future. Brooding over his one-sided attraction to his partner is helping no one even if Jack’s been dealing with it for longer than he likes to admit.

Next thing on his agenda is getting them some water. Jack takes the pot and braces himself before quickly opening the door and getting as much snow as he can. After that, it doesn’t take long to set up the stove and soon enough Jack has a nice, warm supply of water. He doesn’t have anything to treat it with, but the snow’s pretty fresh and shouldn’t give them much trouble. He repeats the entire process a few times until they have enough for the toilet, too.

Mac still hasn’t woken up, but his colour is getting better and his breathing sounds steadier, too. Jack takes the very last blanket he saved for himself, settles in against the wall next to the bed and waits for the night to be over.

   

Waking up is tedious. For a moment, Mac is confused, then panic sets in because he can’t move. His body is tightly wrapped up and Mac struggles to sit up and find out where the hell he is. The last thing he remembers is bracing himself as Jack lost control over their car and then…nothing.

Before he can roll off the bed, because he’s still weak and can’t quite manage to free himself, there’s a hand on his face and the steady, reassuring voice of his partner which, above all, means _safety_ to Mac.

“Easy, Mac. We’re safe.” Jack’s face appears above his own, warm brown eyes looking down at him and Mac calms down immediately.

“You got pretty cold outside. Almost thought I’d lose you to the snow.” Jack continues and fiddles with something just out of Mac’s field of vision. When he turns back to Mac there’s an enamel mug in his hands, steaming with a warm liquid.

“Don’t do that to me, man. This old heart can’t take much more of your death defying adventures.” Jack tries to make light of the situation, but there’s a faint tremor in his voice, and his hands that tell Mac it might have been a closer call than Jack lets on because Jack’s hands are almost always steady.

Carefully Jack helps Mac to sit up, pushing back the blankets around his face and cradling Mac’s hands with his own when Mac is still too weak to hold up the mug on his own.

“It’s that disgusting chicory stuff you hate, but it’s the only thing I could find.” Mac takes a careful sip and grimaces. Yep, still not a fan but it’s nourishing and already helping to warm him up so he’ll take it.

“What…what happened?” Mac asks, handing the now half empty mug back to Jack. His voice sounds as weak as he feels and he’s still shivering, still cold and he wishes he had the courage to ask Jack to join him on the bed, imagines tucking himself against that solid frame, soaking up the warmth and silently scolds himself for being so weak, so needy.  

Jack notices the shiver and gathers up the blankets back around Mac’s head.

“You saw a house close to the street when we were being chased by Kostov’s goons but passed out before we could get here. I carried you the rest of the way.” Jack closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and Mac imagines what Jack must have felt, alone and with an injured Mac, not knowing if the house would be the imagined shelter or just delay the inevitable.

Delay Mac’s death.

If Mac had been in Jack’s place…

His heart clenches at the thought.

They’d had close calls over the years but somehow this situation feels so much more intimate. There’s a special kind of horror in death by hypothermia. It’s not quick, like a bullet to the head or slow and full of agony like so many other possible deaths. Years ago, on one of their first missions for DXS, Mac and Jack had come across the bodies of a group of drug runners who’d died that way and the thing Mac remembers most about that mission is the way their faces looked, almost…peaceful.

It’s been starring in his nightmares ever since.

Jack continues, “I had to leave the bags outside, so no radio, but I figured with the storm tonight there’d be no contact anyway. Haven’t gone out to take a look and see how much snow we’re gonna have to wade through but you’re still in no shape to walk anywhere so we’re staying put for now.”

Mac would like to protest that he’s too weak to leave but he’s afraid he couldn’t even make it to the door without Jack’s help so he stays quiet.

“I’m gonna heat up somethin’ to eat. You need to get your strength up and we haven’t really eaten anything since before this whole mess started.” Jack tells him and gets up to leave through the door towards the back of the house.

It’s unsettling, having Jack out of his reach, but Mac can still hear him rummaging through something and so he tries to calm his racing heart and tells himself that Jack will be back in a moment.

Still…

It doesn’t really help.

Lately, he’s been trying to be less…clingy when it comes to his partner. Mac knows he’s too weird, too needy for most people to stick around long term. Until now, Jack’s been the exception, but Mac is too aware that Jack is more patient than most people and he’s trying very hard not to overstep his bounds, trying to convince himself that what they have is enough.

Jack returns, brandishing two equally unappetizing looking cans of food.

“Today’s menu, we can choose between beans and…beans.” He holds up one can and then the other and grins at Mac. “I say we take a chance and try the beans.”

Mac grins back and Jack opens one of the cans with Mac’s little red knife, which he hadn’t noticed on the ground next to the bed, and empties the can into the pot on the small portable stove also next to the bed. Mac really is off his game if he misses obvious stuff like that.

Slowly, the room fills with the scent of food while Mac and Jack sit in companionable silence. Jack is leaning against the bed, close to Mac’s head and Mac feels himself drift off again, secure in the knowledge that his partner is right there.

“Hey, buddy. Come on, you can sleep after we eat.” Jack’s voice breaks through the drowsiness and Mac opens his eyes to the sight of his partner kneeling in front of him, a bowl of steaming beans in his hands.

Trying to sit up is an exercise in frustration but he manages it with Jack’s help and soon they’re both digging into the simple meal with gusto, both of them more hungry than they’d realized.

Of course, that’s the moment the light goes out and the room turns dark. Jack lets out an impressive swear and manages to take Mac’s almost empty bowl from him and that’s all Mac knows for a few moments that feel like years until Jack turns on a flashlight he grabbed from somewhere.

That’s when Mac notices something else.

“Jack, I think the power’s gone. It’s getting colder in here.” Mac says and burrows further into his pile of blankets.

“Of course it is. Because this day hasn’t been shitty enough already.” Jack grumbles and gets up. “You think there might be a backup generator waiting around somewhere?” He asks his partner but Mac doesn’t hold out much hope. Backup generators weren’t exactly standard gear in Soviet Russia and so far this house does seem to adhere to the comfort of the late 1980s.

“Might be.” Mac says, nevertheless. Never wrong to hope for a miracle. “Did you see any other buildings yesterday?” He asks hopefully.

“No, just this house.” Jack answers and right then the flashlight start to flicker, prompting Jack to shake it a few times until the light is steady again. And this one’s about to give up on us, too.”

Jack turns to Mac, his eyes strangely intense in the dim glow of the flashlight. “I’m gonna look for a generator in the back. You stay put, I’ll be right back.”

Mac waits.

It’s not long until Jack returns but to Mac it feels like an eternity.

“Bad news.” Jack begins and puts something down next to the bed. “No generator in the back. Even worse news, the snow hasn’t stopped and we’re pretty much trapped.” Suddenly there’s the tell-tale sound of a match lighting up.

“On the upside, I managed to find candles. A _lot_ of candles.” Jack tells him and begins lighting them up one by one, distributing the candles of various shapes and sizes around the room, carefully placing them in fireproof tins and pots he must have also found somewhere while Mac watches.

“I don’t know what crazy, wannabe cult used this as a hideout but I’m sure glad they’re gone.” Jack mumbles to himself while placing a very _suggestively_ shaped candle on a windowsill. He turns to Mac and wiggles his eyebrows. “Might have been fun to sneak a look, though, if you know what I mean.”

Mac blushes. Yes, he’s noticed the shape of some of the candles, too.

Jack finishes lighting the candles and sits down next to the bed again.

“I gotta tell you, Mac. I have no idea how Matty is ever gonna find us in this weather. We’re pretty much cut off from civilization.” Jack tells his partner but this is actually the one thing Mac isn’t too worried about.

“You said you left our bags outside?” He asks and Jack nods. “Did you find anything in my jacket? Small, black box. Should be in one of the pockets.”

Jack looks at Mac in disbelief. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying right now?” He asks and Mac just grins at him in response.

Jack scrambles up and grabs Mac’s jacket. He finds the transmitter exactly where Mac said it would be, switches it on and holds it up triumphantly. “I could kiss you right now, Mac.”

Mac feels like the words knock out all the air in the room. It’s a phrase Jack has used more than once. It should be comfortable and familiar and Mac is supposed to answer with _just knowing you would is enough, thanks_ but for some reason he can’t, this time. He swallows heavily and feels the cold creeping back in.

He just…

He wants so much, _too much_.

Mac is tired, aching, _cold_ and heartsore. Every wall and defence mechanism he normally depends on is down and it’s all he can do not to ask (beg) Jack to join him.

“Mac, hey. Come on, scoot over, will ya?” And suddenly Jack _is_ there, next to him on the bed. Not nearly as close as Mac wants him but that doesn’t matter as Jack wraps an arm around Mac’s bundled up form, carefully leaning back and taking his partner with him.

“Figure we better share what little warmth we have left while we wait.” Jack rumbles into Mac’s ear, breath moist and warm on Mac’s skin and Mac doesn’t care that this is just to share warmth until they’re rescued. He tucks himself as close to Jack as he possibly can and lets his partner’s distinctive scent of leather and something warmer, something earthier lull him into a drowsy stupor.

He falls asleep to the rhythm of Jack’s breathing.

 

Jack wakes up in heaven. Or hell, depending on the definition. Somehow his partner has managed to wiggle out of most of his blankets during the rest of the night and Mac is pressed up against him, head to toe with a significant amount of naked skin on display. It’s cold in the room and Jack quickly wraps the blankets back around both of them. Mac feels warmer and he’s lost the deathly pallor that made him look like a ghost yesterday but he’s still just gotten over the hypothermia and Jack doesn’t want to risk his safety if he can help it.

The fact that it also means he doesn’t have to let go of his partner is just…an added bonus.

“Jack?” Mac mumbles into Jack’s sweater where his face is smushed into Jack’s chest. He raises his head and blinks at Jack owlishly. It’s adorable, really.

“What time’s it?” Mac asks and presses his head back into Jack’s chest, snuggling even closer and tugging at the blankets until just his hair is still visible.

Jack’s mind blanks out.

When his mind is functional again, Mac is still wrapped around him like an octopus and Jack’s world is still upside down.

“T’m?” comes from beneath the blankets and it takes Jack a moment to realize Mac is still waiting for an answer.

“Morning, I think.” Jack says and looks to the window where he can just make out the glow of the early sun coming through the boards. “The Phoenix should have located us by now.” Jack adds, carefully and feels it as Mac stills beneath the blankets.

Mac’s finally woken up all the way then.

Jack slowly extricates himself from Mac’s embrace but can’t quite manage to get up yet. Mac isn’t moving an inch and Jack has the feeling that his partner isn’t even _breathing_. 

Slowly, trying not to spook his partner, Jack scoots down on the bed and draws back the blankets covering Mac’s head until Jack can see his face.

Mac is _blushing_.

 _Okay_ , he thinks. Jack can deal with this. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

Mac mutters something into the mattress that Jack can’t make out and refuses to look at his partner. Jack hesitates for a moment before gently placing a hand on Mac’s face and nudging him to turn to Jack. It works.

“Sorry.” Mac mumbles again and this time Jack can understand him.

“Sorry, for what?” he asks and Mac blushes even harder if that’s possible. Mac turns to his side, tightly wrapping himself in a blanket and looks at Jack almost shyly.

“Look, Jack…I know I’m not good with emotions and you may have noticed that..." He trails off, obviously frustrated, but finds the courage to continue anyway. "I’m maybe, kind of _inlovewithyou_.”

Jack doesn’t say anything, can’t say anything because his world just turned around on its head for the second time that day and he isn’t entirely sure he hasn’t fallen through the looking glass and resists the urge to look around for a white rabbit.

“Not that I expect anything.” Mac adds frantically, obviously misinterpreting Jack’s silence. “We can totally forget I just said that, right? It’s the hypothermia speaking.”

But Jack’s having none of that. With a move that’s a lot more graceful than Jack has any right to be after spending the night on a lumpy mattress in the Belarusian countryside he rolls himself on top of Mac and smiles down at his partner.

“Nope, we’re not forgetting anythin’.” Jack growls and finally gives into the urge to run his hand through Mac’s hair, something he’s been fighting ever since Mac started keeping it longer again.

Mac answers with a slightly confused smile of his own. “Okay? Jack, what are you…”

Jack doesn’t let Mac finish his sentence. He tightens his grip on the kid’s hair and presses his lips to Mac’s.

Mac doesn’t just kiss him back, he _yields_ to Jack, opening up and letting him in, letting Jack explore his mouth and skin while his hands hold on to Jack’s sweater. Mac is hard, Jack can feel it through the flimsy barrier of the blanket Mac is still wrapped up in and his partner is frantically rubbing himself up against Jack, trying to get some friction while Jack  presses a kiss against the birthmark on Mac’s skin and then Jack just…stops.

“What? Jack?” Mac sounds frustrated but Jack resists the temptation and looks up and into Mac’s eyes.

“We should probably slow this down, Mac.” Jack starts and Mac makes a half-hearted attempt at going back to kissing Jack but deflates as soon as he tries to move. And that’s exactly what Jack is talking about.

“ _Angus_.” He admonishes and that stops Mac because Jack rarely uses Mac’s given name and then only when he wants his partner’s attention.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for continuing this as soon as we’re back home but you just got over _hypothermia_ , Mac.” Jack adds even though he wants nothing more than go back to kissing Mac.

“I hate it when you’re right.” Mac says mulishly, relaxing into the bed. “It’s just…” he grumbles and throws an arm over his face, hiding from Jack’s gaze and Jack can guess what has him this frustrated. He doesn’t know whether it’s just that Mac is so much younger than Jack or because he’s on a hair trigger right now, but where Jack’s own arousal has somewhat deflated, Mac is still hard against Jack’s thigh.

Well…

Jack can at least do something about that.

Holding himself up with one arm he slowly draws back the blanket separating him and Mac. Mac is beautiful like this, warm and pliant beneath him and Jack takes a moment just to enjoy the view.

“Thought you said, I wasn’t up to it?” Mac asks bemused but doesn’t stop Jack, his arms coming up to wrap around Jack again.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t do this for you.” Jack tells him and wraps his hand around Mac’s cock.

Mac’s eyes roll back into his head and he arches towards Jack.

_“Jack.”_

“Hm? Jack asks distractedly and proceeds to slowly drive his partner insane with slow, measured strokes, adding a twist at each end that has Mac gasping for breath. Mac’s orgasm comes as surprise to both of them, quickly and without much warning he spills himself over Jack’s hand and his own stomach. Jack looks at his hand, at the bed, shrugs and wipes it clean on one of the blankets. It’s not like they’re ever coming back here if he has anything to say about it.

Mac is still breathing heavily, eyes closed, a blissful smile on his face and Jack realizes that he might have forgotten something important.

“Hey, Mac?”

“Yeah?” Mac slowly opens his eyes and looks at him questioningly.

“I’m in love with you, too.” Jack tells him and grins like an idiot.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

 

_Of course, that’s the moment the Phoenix rescue team bursts through the door, courtesy of Matilda Webber finally having been alerted to their position by the transmitter Jack turned on earlier. Matty, caring boss that she is, will never let them live this down and will, eventually, tell this story at their wedding reception a few years down the line, but that's a story for another time._

 

 


End file.
